Review: Revival in the Dominican Republic

Marcados por la Unción : La Crónica de un Gran Avivamiento desde David García hasta Luis Urbáez, by Samuel Santana. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Concilio Evangelico Asambleas de Dios de la Republica Dominicana, 2010.

A great revival in the Dominican Republic in the 1950s dramatically impacted the development of the Assemblies of God in that Caribbean nation. Marcados por la Unción tells the story of that revival and two evangelists — David Garcia, under whose ministry the revival began; and Luis Urbaez, a convert of Garcia’s who became a significant evangelist.

Samuel Santana, the Director of Public Relations for the Assemblies of God of the Dominican Republic, researched and authored this important book, which details the events surrounding the 1954 revival and the lives of these two legendary preachers.

The revival started in March 1954 under the ministry of two men who had recently arrived from Puerto Rico — David Garcia and Jaime Cardona. The crowds at the revival meetings in Santo Domingo initially numbered 8,000 people, causing the local newspaper, El Caribe, to cover the story. With the added publicity, attendence swelled to 15,000, with many people accepting Christ and receiving healing.

The revival sparked fierce debate — causing Catholic leaders to deny that real healings and miracles were taking place. Interestingly, a famous Dominican doctor, Heriberto Pieter, defended the Pentecostals and stated that prayer for the sick had been shown to be beneficial. One of the converts in this revival, a young criminal named Luis Urbaez, went on to become a significant evangelist who traveled across Latin America.

Marcados por la Unción provides insight into Pentecostal history in the Dominican Republic, but also illustrates broader themes — such as the relationship of Pentecostals to other churches and the movement’s international character – that are important to the emerging global Pentecostal movement.

Reviewed by Darrin J. Rodgers.

Paperback, 111 pages, illustrated. $8 plus postage. For ordering information, contact the author by email (ssantana5@hotmail.com).

Oral Roberts Dies

Oral Roberts preaching at tent crusade, circa 1950s

TULSA, Okla., December 15, 2009 – Dr. Oral Roberts, a legendary evangelist who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 20th century, died today in Newport Beach, Calif., due to complications from pneumonia. His son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. The founder of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University was 91.

There will be a private family internment. Arrangements for a public memorial service in Tulsa are pending and will be announced soon.

“Oral Roberts was the greatest man of God I‟ve ever known,” Richard Roberts said. “A modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, an author, educator, evangelist, prophet, and innovator, he was the only man of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical school.

“Beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, he was not only my earthly father; he was my spiritual father and mentor. The last member of his generation in the Roberts family, he had a passion to bring healing to the sick.

“His name is synonymous with miracles. He came along when many in Christendom did not believe in the power of God and His goodness. Oral Roberts was known for sayings such as “God Is a Good God,‟ “Expect a Miracle,‟ “Release Your Faith,‟ and “Plant Your Seed for a Harvest.‟

Review: Wayne and Evelyn Pitts

Touching Lives the Jesus Way!: Sixty-nine Years of Ministry, Wayne and Evelyn Pitts, Stories of Lives Changed by the Gospel, by Wayne and Evelyn Pitts with Londa Duncan. Xulon Press, 2008.

From stories of their childhood in Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, to memories of God’s provisions during the Great Depression, to accounts of healing and early Pentecostal revivals, Wayne and Evelyn Pitts’ new book will be warmly welcomed by the thousands who have been touched by their lives and ministry. Wayne Pitts, ordained by the Assemblies of God in 1943, and his wife Evelyn enjoyed long-term pastoral ministry in Florida.

Hardcover, 284 pages, illustrated. $25.99 retail. Order from: amazon.com

Review: Maria Woodworth-Etter

Maria Woodworth-Etter: For Such a Time as This, by Wayne Warner. Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2004.

The author, Wayne Warner, has done intense, investigative work to bring his readers Woodworth-Etter’s true life story, and it is a thorough story at that. Maria Woodworth-Etter was a phenomenal woman evangelist who strongly opposed racial and gender discrimination. She believed the only way to be saved from sin was through Jesus Christ and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Not only does he share her accomplishments and successes, but also moments when her faith was weak and when life was not fair. He also displays her with power brought on by the Holy Spirit. Warner compares her in many ways to several important, powerful followers of God in the Bible who also had a calling specifically for that period of time.

The book includes detailed descriptions of significant events in Woodworth-Etter’s career and life along with excerpts from her own book, Marvels and Miracles. The author gathers several newspaper stories and editorials along with descendants’ accounts of her life and her powerful meetings. He gives both the positive and negative newspaper reports. Warner takes several primary sources and even personal accounts and ties them together into a detailed, yet exciting review of Woodworth-Etter’s life and the influences she had during her time. He also includes valuable pictures of her, her meetings, and her family members.

Warner shares of Woodworth-Etter’s struggles before she was able to fulfill her calling as a female evangelist. He also explains, with the help of excerpts from Woodworth-Etter’s book, that the basis of her ministry was her desperate prayers before every sermon. He goes on to describe her ministry extending outside of Ohio and the oppositions that came with this from her family and several others. Most of the time, he goes through her life like he’s following a time line. But there are a few times that he jumps back to a significant event to add or elaborate on it.

Readers are taken on a detailed journey through not only the trials and ministry of Woodworth-Etter but also her heart and influences on her time and those around her. She dramatically changed the view people had of women and their roles in the Church and God’s work. She paved the way for the Pentecostal movement and for many after her, including several women such as Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman, and also influenced men like Smith Wigglesworth.

Reviewed by Sarah Ahmed, Evangel University student

Paperback, 359 pages. $12.99 retail. Order from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Review: E. W. Kenyon

E. W. Kenyon: Cult Founder or Evangelical Minister?, by Geir Lie. Oslo, Norway: Refleks Publishing, 2003.

To some people, just the mention of E. W. Kenyon brings about a level of controversy concerning the roots of his theology. Kenyon really didn’t receive much public recognition until Daniel McConnell’s book, A Different Gospel, was published in 1988. In McConnell’s book, Kenyon’s theology is presumably linked to Christian Science, New Thought, and Unitarian ideas. McConnell’s book, in many ways, brought Kenyon’s suspicious dealings with cultic groups and ideas to a national, even popular level. But there is a lot more to be said of Kenyon before an irrefutable conclusion can be made. There is no doubt that E. W. Kenyon has had a great impact on the Pentecostal movement, and yet that influence on some may have been a controversial one.

One leader he influenced was Kenneth Hagin, whose work in the Word-Faith movement has impacted many areas of Pentecostalism. Reaching back even further to Kenyon’s time, he had a big influence on people like William Durham, F. F. Bosworth, and Aimee Semple McPherson, to name a few. Kenyon’s influence on the Pentecostal movement was far-reaching. Since Kenyon indeed has had a major impact on the Pentecostal church, further research into the origins of his theology is very important.

In Geir Lie’s book, he goes into great detail concerning Kenyon’s presumable “connection” with Christian Science and cultic ideas. The book is divided into 5 different parts. The first section deals with the life of E. W. Kenyon. Geir does a very good job digging into the elusive early life of Kenyon. He goes into detail concerning Kenyon’s early Christian experience to his critical time where he attended Emerson College. He also focuses on what Kenyon actually believed concerning God, Satan, the incarnation, and the Word. He then dives into the historical roots of Kenyon’s theology. In this part of the book, he goes into detail concerning the different possible movements that may have influenced Kenyon. The book finishes by dealing with the influence that Kenyon has had on the American Pentecostal movement and abroad.

Geir Lie’s book gives a great counter-balance to McConnell’s book. The background that Geir comes from, in which he goes into great detail concerning Kenyon’s background in the introduction, is an essential part of the book. Geir was directly influenced by the teachings of Kenyon, and he has even translated several of Kenyon’s books. Because of his own background, Geir is able to give the reader a unique perspective into the life and influence of E. W. Kenyon. The research he has done on the subject is immense and is evident throughout the book.

In conclusion, E. W. Kenyon: Cult Founder or Evangelical Minister?, is a must read for anyone who is serious with studying the roots of the modern-day faith teaching. With all the controversy surrounding Kenyon, his connection with the modern Pentecostal movement, and the fairly recent books published concerning Kenyon’s theological roots, this book is a valuable piece of the complicated puzzle surrounding the life of E. W. Kenyon.

Reviewed by Gary Larsen, Evangel University student

Paperback, 192 pages. $25.00, plus $3.50 shipping. Order from: Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, 1445 N. Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802; E-mail: archives@ag.org; Ph. 1-877-840-5200.

Review: Voices of Pentecost

Voices of Pentecost: Testimonies of Lives Touched by the Holy Spirit, by Vinson Synan. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 2003.

Images of the Holy Spirit and Pentecostalism have historically been associated with that of the ministries of William J. Seymour, Charles Parham, and the Azusa Street Revival. These revivals recorded the emergence of glossalalia to the Church and became widely acknowledged as the beginnings of Pentecost. While Seymour, Parham, and Azusa Street demonstrated the overflow of the Spirit upon the 20th century, they alone are simply a portion of the Pentecostal movement which has spread throughout history in a variety of avenues. Within Vinson Synan’s, Voices of Pentecost, a sampling of firsthand accounts of the charismatic movement is provided, addressing lesser-known personages and denominations to Pentecostalism. Faiths including Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Methodism are included with their spiritual lineage and unique Pentecostal perspective.

Synan approaches this historical overview by submitting 2-3 page testimonies or eyewitness accounts of various men and women who have influenced Pentecostalism. At the very beginning of the work, Synan breaks the traditional mold to present a spiritual event within the Catholic account of St. Augustine and his eyewitness description of spiritual prayer. Synan continues his collection with other renowned names including Billy Graham, Pope John Paul II, St. Francis of Assisi, and Charles Finney while incorporating many lesser known names. Even foreign spiritual encounters such as the revival within the Methodist Episcopal Church of Chile in 1909 are retold in the testimonies of its participants. This collection spans hundreds of years to create a vivid representation of Pentecostal history.

Included with the individual epithets are theological principles that have helped shape the Pentecostal church. For instance, descriptions of miraculous healings, unification of the races, missions inspiration, along with traditional church prayers and protocol are included. Personal descriptions of the baptism of the Holy Spirit create a tangible image of this most holy gift. The ease at which Synan writes is exceptional, and his emphasis upon primary sources are quite useful in painting a stunning image of each account.

For the benefit of those familiar with the Pentecostal historical timeline, a chronological system would have offered a more systematic layout for this book. It is important to note the significance of pre-Azusa street Pentecostal encounters such as John Wesley (1703-1791), Charles Finney (1792-1875), and Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924), which would differ greatly from modern-day contributors like Mark Rutland, Pat Robertson, etc.

In an age of scarce historical acknowledgement, Synan’s work, Voices of Pentecost, contributes a much needed overview of the major contributors to the Pentecostal movement. The readability and intrigue of this work makes it accessible to audiences of various ages with the assurance of building faith. It is a significant contribution to the Church to have all these testimonies collected in one solitary place.

Reviewed by Krista Ridley, Evangel University student

Paperback, 180 pages. $10.99 list price. Order from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Review: Quad Cities Pentecostal history

Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage: A Memorial to the Church in the Quad Cities, compiled by Kenneth Richard Kline-Walczak. Revised version. Hillsdale, IL: The Author, 2008.

Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage is the second in a projected four-volume series of books about the history of the Pentecostal movement in the Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island, Illinois and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa). The first volume cataloged the influence of healing evangelist Maria Woodworth-Etter in these towns along the Iowa-Illinois border. Now, in this second volume, Kenneth Richard Kline-Walczak has assembled an impressive collection of articles concerning the region’s Pentecostal heritage and its roots in earlier Christian traditions.

Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage is divided into five chapters. The first chapter (p. 1-43), “The Mass Mound and the Blessing of Davenport,” documents the ministry of Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, a Jesuit priest-missionary who is believed to have conducted the first Christian service in the area in 1835. Kline-Walczak describes the priest’s work as “miraculous” and “apostolic.” The second chapter (p. 45-78) traces the influence on the Quad Cities of the 1857-1858 revival which originated from the Fulton Street prayer meetings in New York City. The third chapter (p. 79-168) provides detailed information about a local congregation affiliated with noted healing evangelist John Alexander Dowie, the founder of the Christian Catholic Church (headquartered in Zion, Illinois).

The fourth chapter (p. 169-346) presents information about campaigns in the Quad Cities held by various healing evangelists from 1900 to 1960. The chapter, organized chronologically, includes both the mundane (such as the times and locations of services) as well as controversies covered by the local press (including the 1929 departure of the “blonde evangelist” Mattie Crawford due to disagreement over finances). Some of the evangelists in this chapter include: 1900s – Martha Wing Robinson, Maria Woodworth-Etter; 1910s – Wilbur Glenn Voliva, James L. Delk; 1920s – A. W. Kortkamp (founder of Moline Gospel Temple), Mattie Crawford, Louise Nankivell, Lilian B. Yeomans; 1930s – Watson Argue, Mrs. A. A. Carpenter, Joseph Mattson-Boze, Everett B. Parrott, Kathryn Kuhlman; 1940s – R. F. DeWeese, Charles S. Price, Lorne F. Fox, Raymond T. Richey, Leonard E. Page, Oral Roberts, Charles L. Hollis; 1950s – O. L. Jaggers, Frank R. Lummer, William Freeman, James W. Drush, William Branham, David J. DuPlessis, Lloyd Huffey, A. A. Allen, Billy Adams, Velmer Gardner, Maurice Hart, Gordon Lindsey, Morris Cerullo.

The fifth chapter (p. 347-368) is dedicated to Dr. Charles L. Hollis and his wife, Ruth Vingren-Hollis, who served as pastors of Moline Gospel Temple from 1949 to 1999. This chapter includes transcriptions of an oral history interview of the Hollises by the author and of an interview of the Hollises by Kathryn Kuhlman, which was broadcast on her television program in 1976.

The bulk of Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage consists of hundreds of articles from regional newspapers, assembled for the purpose of introducing the region’s readers to its Pentecostal past. Kline-Walczak also includes helpful interpretive and bibliographic essays about the subjects at hand. By reproducing such a vast assortment of historical materials, the compiler allows readers to get a sense of the mood of early Pentecostals (and, at times, that of their detractors). Kline-Walczak, through his back-breaking research efforts, has given Pentecostals in the Quad Cities a valuable documentary account of their origins and development.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, vi, 368 pages, illustrated. $20, plus $4.00 shipping. Order from: Ken Kline, P.O. Box 162, Hillsdale, IL 61257 (email: woodworth65@yahoo.com ; phone: 563-845-1918).

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Congregational Holiness Church

We Believe [2nd ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2003.

The Life Story of Rev. B. F. Duncan, 1874-1949 [rev. ed.]. Griffin, GA: Congregational Holiness Church, 2004.

My Earthly Pilgrimage, by Cullen L. Hicks. Augusta, GA: Augusta Printing Center, 2004.

Vision Caster: The Story of Hugh B. Skelton, by E. Amelia Billingsley. Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2000.

The Congregational Holiness Church (CHC) (www.CHChurch.com) made its entrance onto the Pentecostal scene in 1921, resulting from a disagreement within the Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) over the role of medicine in divine healing. Many early Pentecostals, including PHC leaders, eschewed human remedies (such as physicians or medicine) and instead encouraged believers to seek divine healing, which they taught was provided for in Christ’s atonement. This rejection of modern medicine was not universally held in the PHC. When evangelist Watson Sorrow and Hugh Bowling disagreed with the PHC on this and other issues, they were forced to leave the PHC in 1920. They — along with a handful of other ministers and churches — organized the CHC in High Shoals, Georgia in 1921. The CHC was organized along congregational lines, differing from the PHC’s episcopal polity, in an attempt to democratize church governance.

The CHC has grown from 12 churches in 1921 to over 5,200 churches in 12 states and 19 countries in 2007. The CHC’s growth reflects the growing importance of the emerging Pentecostal movement in non-Western contexts. Like the Assemblies of God, fewer than five percent of CHC churches and members are located in the United States. The CHC claims 25,000 adherents in 225 churches in the U.S. and almost one million adherents in about 5,000 churches outside the U.S. (primarily in Central and South America).

Review: Testimonies of Signs and Wonders

Testimonies of Signs and Wonders: Evangelistic Crusades of Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter in Moline, Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa in the Years 1902-1903-1907, or Redigging the Wells of Holy Spirit Renewal: Our Forgotten Heritage in the Quad Cities, compiled by Kenneth Richard Kline-Walczak. Revised version. Davenport, IA: The Author, 2006.

Maria Woodworth-Etter, among the most prominent of the healing evangelists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, became one of the best known Holiness preachers to embrace Pentecostalism. Her popularity was due in large part to her practice of faith healing and other charismatic gifts, which began occuring in her meetings in about 1885. Her ministry attracted large crowds, fierce detractors and fervent supporters, as well as widespread coverage in newspapers from coast to coast. Newspaper editors, who often deemed the excitement and large crowds sparked by the woman evangelist to be worthy of critique, helped to spread her fame. The standard biography of Woodworth-Etter, Maria Woodworth-Etter, For Such a Time as This (Bridge-Logos, 2005), was authored by former Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Director Wayne E. Warner.

Now Kenneth Kline-Walczak has cataloged Woodworth-Etter’s influence in one corner of the world — the Quad Cities on the Iowa-Illinois border. His book consists largely of an impressive collection of articles (1884-1907) about Woodworth-Etter from regional newspapers, assembled in chronological order and reprinted for the purpose of introducing the region’s readers to its Pentecostal past. The compiler also includes a helpful guide to the people and places mentioned in the articles. Kline-Walczak’s detailed research will aid not only historians, but also people in the Quad Cities as they seek to recover the sacred stories of God’s work among them in previous generations.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, xxvi, 194 pages, illustrated. $20, plus $4.00 shipping. Order from: Ken Kline, P.O. Box 162, Hillsdale, IL 61257 (email: woodworth65@yahoo.com ; phone: 563-845-1918).

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Review: An Adventure in Faith

An Adventure in Faith, by Palmerine Pratt. San Diego, CA: Aventine Press, 2006.

Russell and Palmerine Pratt served as ministers of music in large Assemblies of God churches in Washington, D.C., Denver, and Oklahoma City. In An Adventure in Faith, Palmerine recounts their journey, highlighting God’s faithfulness through physical and mental obstacles. She also tells of the miraculous deliverance, healing and restoration of their family, which led them overseas as musical missionary evangelists traveling solely on faith without pledged support from home for a period of several years. An Adventure in Faith will evoke memories for those who have counted the Pratts as pastors and friends.

Paperback, 201 pages, illustrated. $14.50 retail. Also available with cloth binding. Order from: Amazon.com

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